Between You and Me
by TheCreativeOne17
Summary: Lucas has been successful in hiding a secret, that only those close to him know of, until his enemy's girlfriend finds out. Will she tell everyone, bringing him down, or will she stand along side him and even fall for him?
1. Between You and Me

_Hello-hello, I got myself into another angsty story idea with Lucas. My other one, His Greatest Loss, is finishing up and I just thought of this idea. Hopefully this one will as popular if not more. ; ) This story will probably have some romance woven in. _

_ Basically the premise is this- It's season one when Peyton still can't stand Lucas and either can Nathan. Lucas has a secret, that only a few important people know, he's been hiding successfully. It surfaces however when Peyton finds out unexpectedly. How will she respond to him knowing his secret? Will things change between the two of them? How about between Nathan and him? Well tune in to Between You and Me and you will find out... ; ) _

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** _P_**eyton Sawyer drove alone down the dark streets of Tree Hill. She was on her way to go to yet another party Nathan Scott, her jerk of a boyfriend, was hosting. You would think being the girlfriend of the host of the party would have her riding in the passenger's seat right next to him. However, Nathan's love for her was never consistent. One minute he was showering her with love and gifts but then in the next second he was yelling at her for something. They had fought and broken up at least three times with in the last two weeks. And for some reason she would never understand he would call her the next day pleading with her to take him back.

It drove her crazy inside, the cycle their relationship was stuck in. Did Peyton really deserve all the crap Nathan gave to her? Maybe she did. Maybe she didn't. As she tried figuring it out, she slowed to a red light. She thought about flying through it like she did always to play with fate, but a tow truck stopped in front of her. She sighed and promised she would try again later.

Peyton observed that the truck had Keith's Body Shop logo on it. She had only seen the vehicle when Lucas Scott, the older despised half brother to Nathan, was driving it. She could not stand the guy. He had been a nerd, he tried to steal her and even Nathan's place on the basketball lineup and couldn't play to save his life. Those were Nathan's reasons for hating him. What were hers? He was too good looking, like he had put way too much effort into getting himself ready in the morning. He had not an ounce of fat on his frame making her feel fat around him. He tried to figure her out and unfortunately did a very good job doing it.

Peyton shook her head out of the fog and realized that the light had turned green. She went to ease off the brakes and press the gas pedal, but she noticed Lucas hadn't moved his car yet. She waited no more then ten seconds when she honked her horn to wake up the idiotic kid. Nothing happened.

"Ugh, come on!" Peyton shouted with another impatient honk of her horn.

When Lucas failed to move, Peyton decided to just drive around the loser. She pulled around the left side so she could make some snide remark at his horrible driving skills not to mention his basketball skills. As she passed his driver side window she went to say something, but stopped when she saw something terrifying.

Lucas sat in the front seat convulsing. His whole body completely shook from head to where the car door stopped her line of vision. She instantly slammed on the brakes and bolted out of her car. She flung open the door and saw his entire being succumbed to the seizure he was under.

Somehow Peyton managed to grab his trembling body and pulled him to the ground. She had dealt with her cousin having a seizure once while she was babysitting him since he was prone to febrile seizures, so she knew what needed to be done. She took off her cheerleading jacket and placed it under his head so he would not hurt his head in anyway. After unbuttoning the dress shirt he was wearing, Peyton went to call 911.

Just as she pulled out her phone, the convulsing halted completely. The boy opened his eyes and looked up at her. His once ocean blue eyes don't ask how Peyton knew and cared about his eyes before this event, descended to dark grey. His skin was pale and his lips were brown. He looked up at her with confusion written all over his face.

Lucas had no idea where he was or what Peyton Sawyer was doing above him. She looked confused yet still beautiful as always. He could not explain the roaring pain coming from his head or the exhaustion he felt. He felt like he just sprinted around the enter world three times. What had happened?

Then a ton of bricks had fallen on him as he realized what had happened. He had just had a seizure. Something, thankfully, he had not experienced in a year. How was it possible, after three years of eyeing him closely and then a year free the doctors told him he was seizure free and could return to a normal life of a teenager? He was doing just that by going to his jerk of brother's party. He really had no desire too but promised Haley he would go and try to hang out with some of the nicer guys on the team.

Lucas had a feeling he wasn't going to make it the party. However he still was confused what Peyton was doing near him. Had she seen him have it? She stared down at him with concern burning those pretty green eyes. Trying to avoid her pitiful glare, he attempted to sit up. He felt nauseous, like when you get head rush in the morning when you get out of bed too fast. His stomach turned and he did as well just in time to puke all over the ground twice. Once he was finished, Lucas looked brought his attention back To Peyton.

Just as his gaze was shifting over to her, he noticed a great wet spot on his black slacks just below his waist. Great, he had lost all bladder control in the middle of his seizure. This was getting better by the moment. Not only did he have a seizure, but his childhood crush was right next to him during it all. Just great.

"Are you alright?" Peyton asked softly with compassion glazing her words.

Lucas never had been the recipient of her compassion and had to think he liked it a lot. Usually, she was cold and despondent towards him no matter how kind he treated her. He always figured Nathan, his stupid little half brother, influenced how she treated him in someway.

"Yeah," Lucas answered wiping the corners of his mouth. "I'm fine."

Lucas struggled to stand up and to both of their surprise Peyton aided him. "Whoa tiger, aren't you getting up a little too fast? You just had a seizure."

Lucas laughed a short humorless laugh, "Unfortunately, I'm a pro at seizures."

He dusted off his clothes, fixed the collar of his shirt, and opened the door to the truck. "Thanks for the help, I probably should go home. Nathan and the guys would never live it down if they saw me with this wet stain. They already have enough to make fun of me about."

"Are you sure you can drive yourself home?" Peyton asked with concern yet again.

Lucas really was taken back by her gentleness. He almost wanted to milk the stupid seizure for all it was worth, but then again he could not stand the idea of her knowing a great big secret only a few people knew about.

"I've got it from here, thanks." He went to get in the truck but stopped and said with a great level of seriousness as he looked her in the eye. "Don't tell anyone what you saw, alright? No one at school knows, except for a few people that need to know. Let's keep it between you and me, okay?"

"Why would I want to talk about you anyway? I'm dating your better looking half brother and enemy, I could care less what happens to you." She responded a lot colder then she would have liked.

Lucas smiled. There was the old Peyton he knew. He could take this one since she knew a deep dark secret. Hopefully it would stay that way. He hopped in his car and proceeded to drive home. As much as he was thankful that the old Peyton returned, he couldn't shake two things out his head. Those beautiful green eyes full of compassion towards him. Maybe the seizure would shake up things between them, no pun intended.


	2. Fight with Royalty

The next day, Peyton walked into the hall of school kind of dragging her feet. She had a hard time sleeping as she could not stop thinking of Lucas Scott having a seizure before her eyes. It was not a matter of imagining him have it but the fact, that HE had one. Something told her him having seizures were not a rare occurrence in his life, especially since it was a secret only a few people knew. Who in the school knew something so powerful?

Just as Peyton thought over the possibilities, she saw Lucas and his geeky whatever she was to him Haley James making their way down the hall. Haley would probably know that about Lucas, since Peyton or never saw the two of them apart except when they were separated into two different classes. Lucas had his right arm wrapped around the girl's shoulder as he used his other arm to hold his back pack on his shoulder and to talk with his hand. He must have told a joke or something because Haley started laughing really loud. Peyton had to say she liked Haley's laugh, it was infectious and so relaxed as if she had no desire to impress anyone in the hallway. She wished she could be so lucky to be so free of what other's thought of her but how could she be? She was girlfriend to the king of popularity, he ruled the halls, his domain, with fake impressions and she was to uphold his rule.

The two came near Peyton when Haley's laughing ended. She looked at Nathan Scott's girlfriend and placed a serious look on her face. Lucas said nothing, but lightly smiled at Peyton. That smile went through her entire being and for some unknown reason caused her to drop the books in her hands. Lucas instantly dropped his arm off of Haley and got down to pick up the fallen books. Peyton stood up staring down at the ground.

"You don't need to do that, I can do it." She stammered not liking the idea of him picking up after her clumsiness. It probably was because if Nathan saw Lucas picking up her books and the warmth that would wash over her face, he would kill the blonde boy. Or maybe because she just saw him have a seizure the night before. She was afraid of him having another one in front of her.

"I got it, don't worry about it." Lucas replied from the ground gathering the books. Once he had them in a neat pile. "It's not like I'll have a seizure or anything." He teased with a wink sent up to the blonde above.

When he stood up, Haley slugged him. "That's not funny Luke."

Lucas gave her a funny look to ease her mind of his attempt to be funny and to play into what Peyton and he shared the night before. Once Haley rolled her eyes, Lucas handed Peyton her books. He flashed her a pretty smile as she took them. She loved his smile, it was so warm yet so genuine. The only smiles she ever received from her majesty aka her boyfriend, were when he wanted to take her to bed but Lucas's smile brought her ease that not every guy, or Scott for that matter, wanted to sleep with every girl he could see.

"Excuse me, I don't believe you have any right to be doing that." Nathan interrupted her trance.

Peyton shook her head as if to knock the betraying thoughts in her head and yet to stop the angry king about to decapitate his lower class brother's head. "Nate, he was just helping me pick up my books, he was not like he was gonna kiss me!"

Nathan's hard fiery brown eyes looked from his half brother to his girlfriend. His face without needing to say another word was full of anger and annoyance. "By the look on your face, it looks like you were begging him too!"

Peyton coughed a pretend scoff. "Are you serious, Nathan? Why would I ever want to kiss him? He's a nerd and I'm dating his much hotter half brother! Anyhow he looks like he could break, if any girl touched him."

Lucas was hurt. Not for himself, but for Peyton. He hurt for her and how she had to hide behind a mask of lies to protect herself from her jealous and angry boyfriend. She had been absolutely beautiful, any guy especially a peasant like himself, would be just honored to stand in her presence, let alone to be her boyfriend.

Nathan smiled at Peyton. Inside, her heart sighed. Just as he went to open his mouth, his eyes turned angry again, he snapped his head towards Lucas.

"What are you looking at, loser?" Nathan questioned the boy staring at Peyton and him. Nathan shoved him against the lockers making a loud noise interrupting everyone's transport to their classes. "Why don't you get your own girlfriend and leave mine alone!"

Lucas shook his head, if his head had hit any harder against those lockers, he could have had a seizure right then and there. He focuses his eyes back on his jerk of a half brother. They pulled curled their fingers into fists and glared at each other, daring the other to do something. Lucas would have annihilated him right there but being the seizures that were at bay for the last year were back, he thought better of the idea. It pained his pride to just let everyone stare at him as he walked away from his younger by three months brother just because of a silly health problem none of them knew about.

As Lucas went to walk away, Nathan called with venom drenching his words, "Yeah just walk away. Maybe you're more like Dan that I thought; you both know how to walk away!"

Lucas froze in place with his back to the jerk. A collective noises of "Ooo's" vibrated the hallway as he filled with rage. It was one thing for Nathan to pick a fight with him, but another to drag in history.

"Luke, just ignore him. He's just trying to get inside your head, let's just walk away before anything else happens." Haley whispered trying to defuse the rising tense situation.

Lucas nodded and kept walking with her by his side. Nathan still wanting to make a scene called again, "Yeah that's it, walk away with your fat girlfriend!"

That was it. Lucas could take all the verbal abuse from anyone but the moment you went pass the boundary of bringing someone he cared deeply about, you were done for. Lucas threw his back pack down, turned around, and marched across the hall ignoring Haley's warnings.

He stood right before Nathan, their faces only inches apart "I don't care that the equipment inside your pants stopped growing when you turned five, but don't you ever say anything to anyone I care about that will compensate for your lack of size!" he spoke loud enough for the whole hall to hear him.

Nathan's smirk turned into an angry scowl in less the 0.5 seconds as he heard his kingdom snicker at the comment. He instantly with out any warning grabbed Lucas by the shirt collar and pushed him back into the lockers again, but this time with such force that Lucas saw stars in his vision.

"If you want to live to see the end of the day, I wouldn't say crap like that." Nathan threatened as he gave Lucas fist into the stomach that knocked the wind out of Lucas.

Nathan let his grip of him slip and he put those angry powerful arms around Peyton and instructed her to walk. It sickened her to have someone like that holding her. She looked behind her as everyone resumed what they were doing and saw Lucas double over trying to catch his breath. His pain stricken eyes looked up at Haley who was trying to comfort her and saw straight passed her at Peyton. The look scared her death for some unknown reason, so she her head around and looked forward.

Haley asked her best friend again and again if he was alright. Once his breathing became leveled to normal, he nodded bring a violent rush of pain over his head. He could hear his ears ringing loudly, ringing a warning that another seizure was on its way. He managed to release himself from his best friend's grip and started to hurry down the hall. Haley called out after him, but the ringing overpowered her voice.

Lucas could feel the numbness crawling up his body as it surrendered to the power of the seizure just minutes before it would hit. He slid into the weight room knowing no one would be in there for another hour. Just as he shut the door behind him, his vision started to fade. He attempted to unbutton his shirt but his fingers wouldn't work as they began trembling. He gave up just as he fell to the ground and began to convulse again.

His body under the complete surrender of the attack, imagined many things. Nathan being a jerk as always and Peyton's ashamed glances and admist them all he had thought he had heard the angel say something next to him. He was known to have audio-hallucinations during a grand-mal seizure and this voice could be no different.


	3. Seeing Right Through

Fingers were running through his blonde hair when he came back to consciousness. His vision slowly focused as he stared upward. He must have had a long episode, he could tell by how long his vision is took to return back to normal and how exhausted he felt. It took all the strength inside of him to lift his arm up and rub his throbbing head.

Finally, Lucas's vision focuses on the blonde curly hair sitting at his side. He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things but sure enough it was Peyton next to him once again. He laughs a short humorless scoff.

"What?" she spoke with defensiveness hovering her tone.

Still laying down on the cold ground, which brings tremendous relief to his freaking out body, he answered with "You know, we got to stop meeting like this. Iit would be nice to save you every once in awhile."

This time Peyton scoffed. "I don't need saving from anything." She said with such an obvious edginess that she was merely not trying to convince him, but herself.

Unfortunately for her Lucas saw right through it. "Sure," he replied as he sat up slowly. The room spun around for a few seconds but after that was over, he felt fine other then absolute exhaustion and the uncomfortable pain from his body thrashing all over the hard linoleum floor.

"What was that supposed to mean?" Peyton asked angrier then she intended.

"Well," he rubbed the back of his head hoping to ease the pain. "You have got probably the biggest jerk for a boyfriend who doesn't want to do anything more then sleep with you and you feel absolutely trapped because you're living a life that you hate. You want to live a life behind the scenes not right in front where everyone can eat you alive especially him but you hang onto him because for strange reason if you let go of him you'll be alone and that scares you to death. You'll go through all the crap he throws your way because that means you have someone."

Peyton felt absolutely terrified and so exposed all at the same time. It was a horrible combination. She felt like was standing naked before Lucas. They had hardly talked before last night but yet he had managed to sneak into her head and heart and knew exactly what she had been struggling with silently for the last few months. It was almost like the boy opened up her unwritten journal and sought out all her deepest secrets.

Offended, Peyton began to feel that as Lucas Scott would dare to try to get inside of her like no one had ever tried to without having some kind of secret ambition. He had to have a reason for trying to understand her and the complexities that went with her. She made eye contact with the blue eyed blonde and found through his paled skin, a light smile that once again jolted through her heart.

However, her defenses and walls shot up instantly. She grabbed her back pack, swung it over her shoulder with a huff. She stood up quickly and went to exit the locker room. Lucas, still sitting on the floor, asked;

"I must be right to make you in a hurry to leave; if I was wrong you would stay here and prove to me that you are one of the happiest people alive."

Fuming, Peyton nearly yelled "You don't know anything about me!"

Lucas picked himself up off the floor and staggered over to the incensed girl. Looking right into her flaming green eyes with the flinching of his own ocean blues, he responded with "I think I know more then anyone else and that's what scaring you the most."

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Short and sweet...just like me...just kidding, well I am short that's for sure...but anywhoo, there's that. I don't know if it came out the way I would have liked. What do you think? Be honest as always. : )


	4. Together Against the World

That night, Lucas sat upright in his bed staring down at his chemistry book sitting on his lap. He read the same paragraph about chemical bonding at least ten times in the last ten minutes. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion. Having two full grand mal seizures in the last two days would lead anyone to feel absolutely exhausted. He barely kept his eyes open through his favorite class literature, let alone his least favorite chemistry after he recovered from the last episode.

Now he stared at his stinking chemistry book hoping the long and fancy words for crap would mean something. He rubbed his temples as the door leading to outside of his room opened bringing in his best friend. She hummed a familiar tune that Lucas could not place but knew it sounded familiar.

"Hey Hales." He greeted without looking up from the textbook giving one more attempt at the longest paragraph he had ever had to read. Lucas could spend hours dissecting pieces of literature but could not understand anything scientific.

Haley plopped down on her best friend's bed and watched him surrender reading the book by shutting it and casting it aside. When he looked up at her, Haley saw complete exhausted cast a grey color in his deep ocean blue eyes. It concerned her deeply; she had not seen his eyes look like that in a year.

Lucas could feel Haley's eyes studying him intently like he was the chemistry book. He knew that look all too well. Haley was there every step of the way in his fight against epilepsy for three years. Three years he battled the war against seizures, sometimes where a good week had only four of them. She was there when the first one happened and was there when then the last one apparently happened.

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Summer of eighth grade…

_The first one was at none other then the rivercourt. Haley was watching on one of the picnic tables as Lucas and the guys playing basketball against each other. Marvin McFadden better known in their circle as "Mouth" and Jimmy Edwards sat along side her giving their commentary of the game. Haley looked at her childhood friends and laughed. _

"_We are of course graced by the presence of Haley James a consistent fan that comes to every game that we allow her to come in free." Mouth chimed in his pretend microphone. _

"_It does help that she's beautiful." Jimmy timidly added in. _

_Lucas, full of salty sweat, pivoted back and forth from Junk with the ball in his possession called out to Jimmy "Hands off Jim, no one's touching Hales. Not until she's at least thirty." _

_Haley glowed inside. Lucas's protectiveness over her always warmed her heart. Lucas and Haley against the world, that's how it had always been and would be. She watched her best friend's moves on the court as he slithered past Skills and Junk and slammed the ball in the basket. He came down to the ground with satisfaction on his face but also a look Haley had never seen him wear before. Pain covered his face and almost like he was slowly becoming disoriented. _

_Fergie interrupted Haley's scrutinizing gaze by standing in her way to give Lucas a high five. They exchanged the high five and Lucas dribbled the ball back to half court. He stood there wiping his forehead with the back on his hand._

"_Next point wins, alright guys?" Lucas stated more then asked. _

_Skills, standing on the other side of him, looked at him funny "Yo Dawg, you alright? We be usually dragging you off this court the next morning but it's not even midnight yet." _

_Haley leaned over to observe her friend's unusual behavior. Skills was right. During the summer nights Lucas could spend the whole night at the rivercourt playing basketball until early the next morning. If he wasn't playing the night away, he was laying on cement staring at the sky soaking up all the silence and solitude. Haley often joined him in this particular activity. Sometimes they would talk and sometimes they would just lay their for hours without saying a single word._

"_I'm fine, just tired." Lucas responded focusing his blurring vision at the basket. _

_Skills shrugged, "Okay man, get ready to lose this game." _

_As the game wore on, Lucas's movements became lazy and slow. Skills had no difficulty ripping the ball out of his possession and scoring. Skills cheered with Junk rubbing their victory all over their opponents. _

"_Well that's it ladies and gentlemen, this concludes tonight's game. Team Skills has for once successfully beat Team Lucas! Have a great night and thanks for watching!" Mouth reported from the bench. _

"_Come on Hales, I'll walk you home." Lucas spoke as the boys harassed each other. _

_Haley stood up and said goodbye to the guys. They started walking off the court when Lucas turned his head around and said, "What?"_

_The guys who were congregating in the middle contemplating playing another game, stopped and looked at their friend. "What?" Skills answered in reply._

_Lucas stopped walking and turned half way. "One of you called my name. What?"_

_The three looked at each other and even at the boys sitting on the bench, shaking their heads. "No one called you, Luke." Mouth replied. _

_Lucas shook his head, making the already throbbing pain grow. He heard his name as clearly as the conversation he was having with them. But he heard Skills say one more thing and he was sure he heard it. _

"_Say that to my face, Skills." Lucas turned all the way around and demanded an answer. _

"_I didn't say nothing to you, dawg!" Skills responded with confusion lingering his voice as he eyed his good friend closely. Something wasn't right and he knew it. _

"_You said I suck at basketball!" _

"_Luke, let's go. You're just really tired and hearing things." Haley interrupted to growing tense situation and pulled his arm but he not only shrugged it off but pushed her aside. Something definitely out of character for him to do to anyone, let alone Haley. _

"_I didn't say that, man." Skills defended himself as he watched Haley look at Lucas frightened. _

_Lucas staggered over to his childhood friend as the words coming out of anyone's mouth began to rush together and sound much like a robot talking. He stood before Skills trying to keep his balance, but could feel himself weaving back and forth. Just as he went to open his mouth, his right arm jerked up as his right shoulder locked up towards his face. _

"_Dude, what's happening?. Are you alright?" Skills inquired with his eyes written with worry. _

_Lucas didn't hear the inquiries because a loud shrill ringing screamed over the words. His eyes then spun to the back of his head and his legs gave way. His body fell backwards onto the hard cement with nothing to break his fall. His head slammed against the ground with a terrible impact. Once he hit the ground, Lucas began to convulse immediately. _

_Haley ran by his side and started screaming instantly. All the guys stood over him not sure what to do. Even Mouth and Jimmy jumped off their bench and ran over to their friend. Lucas's joints and other body parts thrashed all over the ground. Finally one of the guys snapped out of their stupor and called for an ambulance. _

_Later that week, after several tests, several neurologists diagnosed Lucas with Epilepsy claming he actually looked as if he would have experience seizures once every day. Grand mal seizures were the obvious ones he faced but there were over a hundred not so obvious ones he faced daily and as the doctors described them to his mother and him, Lucas recognized the different symptoms. _

_Over the next three years, the boy faced the incurable disease in secret. A secret only his mother, Keith, the guys at the rivercourt, Haley, and important staff members at school knew of. There were many times during the course of a day, Lucas would have to excuse himself out of class as another episode was on its way. Generally Haley would be in his same classes so she would know and could be there for him. _

_This behavior caused Lucas to go through a lot of harassment from his peers, especially his ignorant half brother Nathan. Nathan would crack jokes of why the two were in a hurry to exit class causing the class to laugh not knowing what their classmate was going through. _

_After three years of going up and down through different medications that served no purpose, the neurologists found a solution to go along with his medicine. The summer of Lucas going into his junior year, they performed a brain operations to place a grid inside the epicenter of his seizures. Every time Lucas was succumb to a seizure, the grid highlighted where and what was it happening. _

_This allowed the doctors to hone in on the seizures so they could best treat them instead of guessing. By the end of the summer he had not had a single seizure something he began to imagine his life without a day passing with out some kind of episode. __A __year went by and Lucas was successfully named seizure free. He was allowed to return back to a normal life of a teenage boy. Until recently when they came back with what seemed like a vengeance._

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"You alright, Luke?" Haley inquired.

Lucas shrugged stifling a yawn, "Yeah, fine."

He lied. He knew it and do did she. He knew could not get away to lying to his best friend of fourteen years but he thought he could try to press his luck tonight. Why not, it seemed to be his lucky day or matter lucky week?

"Hales, I'm fine." Lucas tried to convince her by pasting a fake smile on his face.

Haley shook her head not believing him, but the only thing that got her past her fear that the Epilepsy had returned was the doctor saying he was completely clear and shouldn't have to worry about it returning.

"So what's up buddy?" Lucas diverged from his friend's scrutinizing looks. Yeah, someone other then Peyton should know about his seizures but he was ready to face that life again and maybe, just maybe they were just a fluke thing. He could take his medication and they would end. Maybe. For some reason he did not believe that, but he had to hope.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay from earlier, you seemed pretty upset. And you slammed your head pretty hard, I was worried but I couldn't find you."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Got a nice little bump on my head but that's basically it." Lucas responded rubbing the back of his head where the bump was.

Haley nodded, "And thanks for defending me. You didn't have too but-"

"Of course I did Hales, you're my best friend! You've been there for me so much in the last few years, no person will ever get away with saying anything about you that has any negative in it!"

Haley smiled; she still loved how protective he was over her. "I did love the whole equipment thing that was hilarious!"

Lucas laughed. "You know what's funny about that?" Haley shook her head still giggling. "I heard my mom say that to Dan on the phone once when she thought I was sleeping."

Haley laughed even harder, "Are you serious?" when Lucas nodded, she continued "Wow the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree, now does it?"

"Nope, not at all."

The two laughed. Lucas and Haley against the world, that is how they intended it to be for the rest of their lives, or just high school. She needed him just as much as he needed her. They sat on his bed for the next two hours playing a highly competitive game of scrabble. Lucas's winning word was simple but held so much in the six letter word that even his best friend did not know; something him Peyton Sawyer and him shared.

Secret.

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There you go, two updates with in days of each other...that's what I call impressive! ; ) Just a little Laley love for you, I love their friendship so much it's much like a lot of my friendships with the guys in my life! The seizure flashback is actually based off of when one my childhood best friend had his first seizure but instead of six people watching, a couple hundred witnessed it as he was singing in church choir. Pretty insane day. He didn't have just epilepsy though, he had a brain tumor. Kind of crazy when we both just turned fifteen. Anywho, he's totally fine now (as fine, mentally, ;) as he gets anyways) This chapter is dedicated to all the guyfriends I have out there especially Jeremy, who our friendship since we were kids has been very much like Laley's. : )

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	5. Nothing at All

That Friday afternoon after school, Lucas made his way through the gym to get to the locker room to get ready for the game that night. As the door shut in the gym behind him, the echo had brought him a few glances from the cheerleading squad. One girl, renown for making out with each player on the basketball, greeted Lucas as she sat with her legs stretched out and her hands trying to touch her feet.

"Hi Lucas." she seductively spoke as she allowed her long straight black hair to fall over her shoulders and her bangs to cover her bright blue eyes.

"Hey." Lucas coolly replied not quite able to ignore how beautiful she was, but snuck a look at Peyton stretching not too far and found her much more stunning.

Peyton watched the brief interaction and rolled her big olive green eyes and looked away after Lucas responded to the girl, missing the look he snuck past her. She could never stand the girl, only because Nathan and she were constantly hooking up behind her back even though she knew it. Then again, Nathan got with several different girls and Peyton failed to hate them. She would just target her anger at her boyfriend because it wasn't any of those girls' faults. He had that stupid charm that had any girl falling for him with a snap of a finger. However, she could not understand the annoyance she felt towards this one particular girl.

"I know that look, P. Sawyer!" Brooke Davis, Peyton's best friend since early elementary school, claimed bringing Peyton back to the real world.

Peyton watched Lucas walk into the war zone, the boy's locker room as she replied to Brooke, "And what kind of look is it, B. Davis?"

"You're checking out Nathan's loser older brother." Brooke reported ecstatically as she stretches her arms.

Peyton turned her gaze to Brooke. "Are you kidding me? My face would be green getting ready to puke if that I was thinking about checking him out!" she blurted with sticking her tongue out in the end.

"No, I know that look. You get that look whenever Tim hits on you, but I honestly think you should go for him just to spice up things between Nathan and you. Anyways, you got that jealous look in your eyes when someone's flirting with someone you've been checking out. And that person is the Lucas Scott!"

Dang. Not only did Lucas read her all to well, but now Brooke, one of the most unobservant people in the world was beginning too. Was Peyton being that obvious that the most clueless person in the world was picking up on her rising crush? Wait. She shook her head. Did she just admit that to herself? The boy sneaked into her thoughts constantly. He continually invaded her thinking at the most inconvenient times. Sometimes it happened as she lied in bed trying to fall asleep, they would come in a whole shower, and leave her mind spinning so much she would throw the covers off and have to draw. Mostly she drew him and that incredible smile but would throw it away as soon as it was finished. She would not allow herself believe for a second she had a crush on the stupid kid. The only reason he was in her thought process was she had witnessed him have two seizures in the last week, who would be able to shake off the thoughts of someone like that?

Other times were simple like in the middle of class when Peyton could care less of the subject in front of her. The worse time was when Nathan and her were making out. Outwardly she felt horrible of thinking of her boyfriend's half brother and enemy but inwardly she needed the diversion to get her past the emptiness Nathan left her to contend with.

Peyton was pretty impressed however, how she managed to downplay her emotions. Like flipping a light switch off, she could do that with her feelings for him. So, it was easy to convince any one asking her about the boy. She was good at concealing her feelings, desires, gazes, and over all presence…wasn't she?

Right.

Peyton shook her head, "No feelings for him at all."

None at all. The nagging feeling that she had to be where he was, was nothing. Not to mention the thought of wanting that smile to be there when she woke up in the morning, meant absolute crap. It all meant nothing. Nothing at all.

Or did it?

Meanwhile, Lucas made his way through the locker room. The room was loud with male activity and prep before the game. He made it to his locker, put his bag down, and opened the door. In it, a small box fell down and hit him slightly on the head. His forehead furrowed as he bent down and picked up the box off the floor. Everyone fell silent as Lucas read the box.

Male testosterone enhancers. Just as he looked at the back, he heard his brother's stuck up and prideful voice behind him "I may compensate for my size, but at least I have something to compensate for. Those should help you in no time!"

Everyone in the locker room, excluding Lucas, snickered like little girls. Lucas shook his head and threw the box in the garbage.

"Oh look guys," Nathan spoke in baby tone. "he threw them away. Guess he knows they wouldn't do anything to help. Poor kid."

Everyone laughed even harder. Every guy that walked past him, shoved him. Once they were all out, Lucas shook his head. He had no problem letting the bantering roll off of him. He knew Nathan was intimidated by him and seized every chance he got to get to his older brother. Much like their father.

Lucas used to envy Nathan and the life he had. Large mansion in the rich side of town, phenomenal basketball skills, all the friends a guy could ask for, girls at his side, and the father that he never had. As a kid, he prayed something would happen to Nathan so his father would want him instead. Months of praying turn into years and Lucas gave up. But when Lucas joined the basketball team and got a closer look into the life of Dan and Nathan, he realized how good he had it.

Dan and Nathan's relationship was highly competitive and not enjoyable for not just them, but everyone who had to witness their relationship. Dan constantly was breathing down his son's neck trying to make him the golden calf he was never meant to be. Lucas, after sixteen years of sadness, was grateful for how his life turned out. A humble one with bumps in the road but a family and friends to support him no matter if he messed up. One that did not consider life's biggest tragedy to be when one missed the winning shot at the end of the game buzzer.


	6. Against the Truth

The game went very well all things considered. Not only did Lucas do a fabulous job maintaining his position as shooting guard after experiencing two seizures in the past week, one earlier that day, which was a feet in of itself, but he was constantly shaking thoughts out of his head through out the entire game. The thought came dressed in a short little cheerleader skirt, revealing beautiful skinny legs that he could honestly stare at all day.

Peyton. He seriously could not move his thought process past though deep bright green eyes. The eyes that played a difficult game of hide and seek with everyone else, but they could not fool Lucas Scott. Over the years he had been told he was gifted in reading people, even the most difficult. It was a skill he took great pride in.

Lucas knew from the instant Peyton and her defensive self came flying out earlier that day, he knew he not only struck a nerve, but figured her out. He would like to think he figured her out more then anyone had before or even cared too. She was a complex young woman and some how that was intriguing to Lucas. Even though she was highly combative and had her walls up high, it would not stop him from climbing up them and tearing them done once he was finished.

During the game Lucas had the hardest time separating the game from his love interest. It seemed every time he went to make a shot, Peyton would be standing there behind the net cheering the time on. He would have try his hardest to focus on the task at hand instead of thinking of how much he liked her.

Lucas honestly could say he was not denying his love for her. Sure, he had not told Haley about it at all or anyone. There was a huge factor stopping him in screaming his love to the world and professing it to Peyton. Her boyfriend and his enemy, his half brother. He laughed thinking of the idea. What if one day, he just made his way over to Peyton and told her of the pent up emotions he had since…well, for a long time. Say she did say yes, Nathan would tear him apart in no time. Something he quite was not ready to face…yet.

As Lucas, continually snuck looks at Peyton, Nathan began to notice their interaction. Nathan Royal Scott had no problem at all not only getting any girl he wanted but was able to wrap them around his fingers and keep them till he dispensed them. He was lived in a very well off financially home. He had a promising basketball career. However, he had one big threat in his life. Lucas Scott. Ugh, it sickened him that the loser had to share a last name with him.

Every morning Nathan would wake up and look himself in the mirror. He would repeat to himself over and over again, "I am Nathan Scott and nothing can touch me!" But when he found out who his half brother was, the proud last name he wore with distinct pride became something twisted. Why did he have to be born? Nathan asked himself that question almost everyday.

Lucas came out of the shadows where he belonged and started to be more prominent in high school. The loser once wore big glasses and had a disgusting mushroom cut making him look so dorky. Sure, Nathan had the same hairstyle but he made the style look cool. After ditching the glasses and the hideous hairdo, Lucas still had a lot of climbing to do accomplish before he could make it to the top of the social ladder.

Lucas came out of no where and took a place on the basketball team's line up. Now, against his will, Nathan was at the same level at the blonde haired one. Nathan hated that fact more then anything in the world, next to the fact he was indeed related to him. The two competed against each other more then any other opponent on another team.

Now Nathan's greatest problem with Lucas was in fact the kid was trying to steal his girlfriend. Sure Peyton and him did not have the greatest of chemistry but she was willing to do anything Nathan wanted to do. If he couldn't get her do certain things he would happily go to some other desperate girl who would say yes to anything. Nathan through his own selfishness, could feel the romantic feelings looming over his girlfriend and half brother.

Why of all the girls in Tree Hill High School did Lucas feel things for _HIS_ girl friend? He did have that fat and nerdy girl, Haley James around him 24/7. Why couldn't he of gone for that easy piece of meat and leave his alone? Nathan vowed he would pay more attention to his girlfriend and see what exactly she was feeling towards the other Scott.

After the game was over, Nathan made his way to the blonde he called his girlfriend though most the time he never acted out of love towards her. He walked over looking down on the ground trying to conjure up some good crap to get her to come over his house for the night. Lately she had been refusing his attempts to get with her. It made him angry and relieved all at the same time; angry that she would dare to reject him but relieved so he could hook up with some other chick for the night.

Went Nathan looked up, he found Peyton talking to Lucas who had already changed back into normal clothes. He stopped dead in his tracks and tried listening in on the conversation. Someone tried to talk to him, but he barely listened.

They were talking about something enjoyable because Peyton laughed. A laugh Nathan could honestly say he had never heard before. One that sounded free and not restricted to what Lucas thought of her. This made Nathan's anger only burn deeper. What could Lucas say to make his girlfriend laugh in way he never could?

"So, did I hit a nerve earlier?" Lucas inquired to the pretty blonde in front of him. He noticed Nathan near by but felt to no qualms about stopping the conversation.

Peyton quit laughing about what Lucas found said he found in his locker. Her walls shot straight up, Lucas saw it in her eyes. Her once bright eyes would turn a deep olive in the matter of seconds. Her face would turn hard and angry and her stance would change.

"Now listen, you don't know a thing about me! You never will! I'm not with Nathan because I am afraid of being alone, I'm with Nathan because I love him! You may think you have a talent in reading people, but you're definitely reading the wrong signs. Some girls may think it's hot for a guy to read them like a freaking book, but I think it's stupid and a waste of time." Peyton more or less exploded at the blonde hair boy staring at her.

Wow. That's all Lucas could truly think. Did she really expect him to believe that? How dumb did she think he was? She might have been able to convince herself but could not convince him.

Nathan watched his short tempered girlfriend explode on his half brother. It was amusing and yet, relieving. Sometimes he had to admit, he felt insecure around his older brother. That the boy was out for everything he owned. So naturally his defenses went up whenever Lucas was around and this huge monster took over. This monster, someone Nathan honestly didn't know, would come out and eat Lucas alive. He would say crap and Nathan would inwardly cringe and hate himself for being such a jerk.

When he had no one to impress, Nathan could honestly say he wanted a relationship with his estranged older brother. He really did. Lucas seemed pretty awesome besides the fact that he was on the nerdy side, but who cared? Nathan wanted to pursue a friendship, a brotherhood but his lack of how to communicate it would stop him. If that didn't, then their overbearing father would and what others would think of him would.

Some way, some day Nathan would figure out a way to get close to Lucas. But how? He would ponder in the dark of night for hours how he could achieve that friendship. Right now their relationship was based on being enemies and that is how it would have to be for now.

Sitting on the bleachers waiting for her best friend to take her home, Haley sat watching the interaction between Lucas and Peyton. She couldn't hear what the cheerleader was saying but she looked upset. Judging by her face, Haley could tell Lucas had probably not only figured out something about her but he was exactly right about it. He had that gift. Some days it was just a curse because she could never hide anything from him but overall it was pretty neat gift.

Lucas said one more thing as Peyton picked up her bag from the floor. He definitely must of struck a cord because before she walked around him, she slapped him right across the face and the walked out with her boyfriend not explaining anything. Lucas, holding his stinging cheek with a smile, walked over to Haley who stood up.

"What did you say now, smarty pants?" she questioned both curious but afraid to ask what kind of stupid thing came out of his mouth.

Lucas spoke with a smugness, "Oh nothing, she just proved my theory, that's all."

* * *

Just a moment to thank you all for your awesome reviews, they have been so helpful and encouraging. I honestly am whipping through this story faster then I have ever done with any other story and that's because the support as been amazing! :)


	7. Plea for Help

uh oh...it's the dreaded....

**WRITERS'S BLOCK **

Someone help. Anyone. I have an end in sight, but not a mode of transportation to get there. Yeah, I can't even, ugh...nope nothing. *Bangs head against wall* Well, the only help that gave was giving me a headache not inspiration. If you have ANY ideas, hopes for what road this will go down, encouragement or anything just let me know. Thanks so much. :)


	8. The Ride of their Lives

A week later…

The tension was high. A complete understatement at best. Two brothers, half brothers, stuck in a small car together. They never could get along all their years of knowing each other's existence and now, they were stuck alone is a moving vehicle. Along with the growing tension was an awkward silence. The two boys stood looking forward at the bending road hoping the trip would end soon enough. Much to their dismay they realized they had only been driving for less then ten minutes.

Coach Whitey and his manipulative ways asked Lucas to drive his car home from the basketball game behind the bus. Lucas complied. Whitey, of course could not let it be that easy, he made Nathan ride along to "keep Lucas awake". Nathan tried to protest as Lucas inwardly cringed but the coach firmly insisted in Nathan getting in the car before he kicked the boy off the team. Grumbling, he turned around and started walking towards the car.

"You'll thank me someday, son." Whitey informed Lucas as Nathan was out of ear shot and tossed him a wink along with the keys to his car. "Don't let that little hooligan convince you to do anything stupid. You hear me?"

"Yes coach," Lucas replied rifling through the key ring to find the ignition one.

He started following his brother to the coach's small rattled pick up truck. Nathan stood leaning against it talking on his phone, obviously arguing with whomever. Seeing him talking on the phone reminded Lucas he needed to call his best friend. He pulled out his phone and called the café.

"Karen's Café, go Ravens, this is Haley how can help you?" her cheery voice answered the phone.

"Hey Hales, it's Luke!"

"Oh hey buddy, how did the game go?" Haley inquired.

"Well, I played the entire game. Nathan was left to watch me from the bench and drool. I scored the winning basket too! It was great, Hales, wish you could have saw it. How about you, how did your evening go?" Lucas bragged a bunch of lies watching his brother curse at the phone.

"Oh you know," Haley spoke wiping the counters of the café. "This hot celebrity came in. I waited on his table first. He starting making out with me and asked me to marry him right then and there."

"Really? Did you say yes?" Lucas asked with fake concern lingering his voice.

Nathan slammed his phone shut and threw it in his basketball bag angrily. He stood there waiting for his stupid half brother to come drive them to their stupid small town. He hated Whitey for making them drive together.

Lucas noted the impatience in his brother's stance and cut Haley off as she drooled about her fantasy celebrity boyfriend. "Hey dream girl, I've got to go. Whitey's making me drive his car back to the school with _Nathan_!"

"Oh, that sounds like a perfect way to end the night." Haley retorted feeling bad for her best friend having to ride in a car alone Nathan for a half hour.

"Tell me about it! Anyways, I'll pick you from the café and we'll swing by my house for the movie."

"Okay sounds good! Don't kill Nathan…you can't afford the living expenses of jail!"

Now the boys were on the road. Neither of them had said anything to each other making the trip seem so much longer. Lucas was grateful for two reasons, one he really had no desire to talk to his estranged half brother and two, his head was started to hurt. Just as the pain started to circle around his eyes, Lucas remembered he left his seizure medication in the locker room at the school they played.

Ever since the seizures came back, much to his dismay, Lucas took his seizure medication without telling anyone. He figured if he took them he could keep the monsters at bay and not need to tell anyone that the problem came back. He could handle the problem all on his own. Right.

Lucas took the prescribed amount when he first woke up that morning and once at lunch when Haley had her face buried in her homework. He made a mental note to take some after the game ended. He had totally forgot to take the medication and failed to even take it out of his locker. Lucas turned the car around so he could go back and retrieve it.

Nathan looked around confused and asked, "What are you doing?"

As much as Nathan outwardly hated Whitey for making him drive with Lucas, he was kind of happy about the awkward situation. He really did desire to get to know him but really never knew how to go about it. He dared not to do in front of anyone, so a forty five minute car ride seemed perfect; except he had no idea how to initiate a conversation. What do you say to your brother, you never knew you were related to, after seventeen years?

For awhile their relationship was nothing more then acquaintances that went to school together all their lives. Nathan often wondered why the blonde and him shared the same last name. He would ask his parents if there was any chance of relation. Noting his mother's paling face and father's urgency to change the subject, Nathan was taught the older Scott was no more related to them then the Scott toilet paper company.

Nathan believed his father's flagrant lies as the years passed but caught himself confused when Lucas joined the town's junior basketball league. Confused only because his father did all he could to get him off the team. Nathan, eleven years old, could not understand why his father was determined to remove the boy from the line up. He was a nice kid, Nathan remembered thinking. He would share his lunch with Nathan when the team took a break from practice. They would talk about video games. They acted like typical brothers not knowing the blood that tied them together. All the rest of the team would make fun Lucas and his big glasses. Nathan would stand up to them and tell them to leave him alone.

One day, the entire team found out their coach needed foot surgery that would have him laid up for the rest of the season. The horrible man that linked them together, Dan Scott happily took over the team and with out any hesitation cut Lucas out. He announced the decision in front of the entire team. Nathan could never forget the look on Lucas's face when he found out. His eyes, hidden behind the large frames, looked downward and fought back tears. He grabbed his stuff and walked out of the gym.

After practice let out, Nathan walked outside. He found a few members on the team beating up someone. He walked over to see who they were fighting when he stepped on all too familiar pair of glasses. He heard his name in broken fragments calling him. Nathan wanted to stand up for the kid and was just about to, when he heard his father call his name from the parking lot. Nathan hoped his father would break off the brawl but the man hollered his name again, impatiently.

Nathan making sure Lucas could not see his guilt ridden face, walked through the fight and stepped over the bruised and battered boy. Six years later, the boys relationship was forever changed from a close nit friendship to an intense rivalry. Lucas could never forgive Nathan for abandoning him in sixth grade like that and Nathan could not forgive himself. He had no words to offer to him that would make up for years of silence.

When Lucas gave no reply of why he was turning the car around, Nathan persisted "Dude, why are you turning around? We're supposed to be following the big yellow thing in front of us. Maybe if you had your big geeky glasses on you could see it!"

Trying to keep his blurring vision on the road ahead of him, Lucas tried his best to reply without sounding like an idiot, "I lleeftt my wa-wa-wallet in the gym!" the sentence game out in a broken mess of slurs really betraying his plan to play it cool that a seizure was imminent.

"Dude, what the heck is wrong with you?" Nathan fired in not the gentlest voice.

Lucas went to answer but then came the ringing. It screamed louder then he had ever heard it before. Generally it would cry making everything else background noise to the soundtrack of life but this time, for the first time it hollered above all else. He could hear nothing.

Not his body beginning to convulse ramming his knees into the steering wheel. Not the semi truck in the other lane honking to warn the boys to get out of the way. Not Nathan panicking voice crying for Lucas to get out of the way. Not the sound of screeching tires trying to avoid a tragic car accident. Not the sound of the small truck flying off the road at full speed.

Everything went black in the mist of the terror. Lucas barely saw the trucks headlights coming face on, the light if anything sent him deeper into the seizure's nasty claws. Nathan trying to take control of the steering wheel pushing past his brother's flailing arms and boy. He barely made it past the large truck as its massive front clipped the back of Whitey's small truck forcing it to spin wildly.

The car spun four times when its back tires caught the edge of an embankment and caused them to flip over times. Nathan hung on to his chair and his brother all at the same time as the car tossed down hill more then Nathan could count before his head slammed against the dashboard knocking him out for the remainder of the ride down.

The car flipped upside down a ninth time into a small river. The boys, both unconscious, hung suspended in the air with the water filling up around them when Nathan opened his eyes. Blood, streaming down his eyes, clouded his vision. He looked over to Lucas to find his body tangled in an awkward position pressed against his door still convulsing.

Nathan needed to act and quick. The water below them showed no hesitation in swallowing up the small truck. Lucas's head, much like a person nodding off in class, kept bobbing and his hair would graze the water. Soon the water would rise and his head would be fully submerged. Nathan unhooked his seat belt and gravity pulled him down into the frigid water. He surfaced it and swam over to his brother. His shaking extremities kept splashing Nathan in the eyes.

"Luke, I don't know how but you gotta stop shaking." Nathan spoke out loud praying some how it would stop.

He reached up and tried to unhook the seat belt tied tightly around the blonde's waist. The water rose higher as he fiddled over and over. Finally the seat belt pried open and the older one's body fell right into the water on top of Nathan. Nathan plunged under, swam around him. After choking up the water that entered into his lungs, he came to his side and wrapped his arms around his waist with one arm and the other pushed his arm to bring them to the surface.

Nathan for once found himself grateful for the hours his father made him work in the gym. Luckily, for the two boys, Lucas's convulsing halted completely but he stayed unconscious. For what seemed like forever, they were under water but finally surfaced. Nathan let out a large breath as he soaked up the fresh air he often took for granted. He found the edge of the embankment where he could bring his brother to.

Exhausted as he swam that way, Nathan could of swore he heard people screaming his name but the weight of his unconscious brother made him focus on the land several feet away. They finally made it and Nathan lifted his brother to the ground with a plop. With half his body on land and half dangling in the water, Lucas lied still unconscious. Nathan pulled himself onto the land.

Panting to catch his breath, Nathan stared at his half brother. Lucas's blonde hair was soaked. His already pale skin was a new shade a pale. His lips were deep brown color. His head was bent in awkward angle leaning towards Nathan.

"Luke, man, you gotta wake up!" Nathan shook him lightly afraid he would break him.

Nathan never felt so terrified in his life. He had no idea what was wrong with his older brother, why did he have a seizure? It freaked him out. Just then, Lucas's eyes slowly opened and looked around the scene before him.

His descended grey eyes found the sinking truck a few feet away and realized his own soaked body as well as Nathan's. Nathan had a large bloody gash above his right eye. His dark eyes screamed fear as he looked down at him. Lucas felt an all too familiar throb in his head and knew what happened.

His big blue eyes widened with absolute terror but yet with questions. Nathan knew what the boy was thinking and nodded. Lucas in complete shock fell back unconscious. Nathan began to panic thinking he lost his only brother. The one he was notorious for treating like a jerk. He went to check if there was any pulse radiating from Lucas but his body gave into an unconscious state as well not hearing several of their teammates coming down the embankment after witnessing the accident.

* * *

_Haha...kicked that writer's block right in the butt! Oh yea! I generally have the hardest time conquering writer's block but thanks to you guys and your ideas gave my creativity some much needed fuel. I kind of used your ideas...not really just took the general roots of the ideas you had. Thank you so much though. Might be the middle of next week when the next update comes...end of semester gets pretty insane. Have a great night :) _


	9. Broken Tradition

Sitting in on her large queen sized bed in her room, Peyton furiously sketched a picture. Her blond curls draped over her left eye and without any thought or skipping a beat, she removed the large thick pieces. She was sure fired determined to finish the picture she was making. She had forty five minutes to finish it or that was the deadline she made for herself.

Peyton was done. She could no longer take it anymore. Her obnoxious, arrogant, jerk like, stuck up boyfriend had crossed the line one too may times. Tonight after his game, he wanted to come home and receive his prize for not only being God's gift to the Tree Hill Ravens but to women as well. He told her she would be able to spend the night with the best thing ever God created. His pride and ego radiated through the phone and made her nauseous.

Peyton had no idea what came over her but she pretty much exploded on the phone. She started to scream everything that came to her mind. She acted much like a shaken bottle of some sort of carbonated beverage. Nathan's immense ego was the hand to twist the top off and lead to the huge explosion. Her outrage led his cocky attitude to turn into one full of rage as well. Both of them yelled into the phone.

Nathan kept threatening to leave her for some other girl. Peyton told him to go ahead; he could pull his crap on some other poor wretched soul, make another girl's life absolutely miserable as long as it wasn't hers anymore. She spent too long taking his garbage and trying to push it aside. It was far too much for any girl to handle.

Nathan Royal Scott was a jerk and every meaning of the word. She had made her mind to march to the school when he arrived so she could pick up. She would continue her tirade against him and maybe drop him off in the middle of the ocean to fend for himself. He could get swallowed by a shark or by a fish, she would not even care.

Forty five minutes went by and she completed her drawing. She wiped away the extra shavings of all the shading she did against the monster's face. Nathan was supposed to call when they pulled up the school's parking lot. He better not have expected her to know when they would be there and have her pull up to find no bus or coach's truck. She waited ten more minutes taking turns staring at the picture and her clock. She tried not to be worried but the last time she waited this long for someone, the most beautiful thing in her life was taken away from her.

Finally, half an hour later, she gave up thinking her boyfriend, so to be ex boyfriend would be courteous to give her call. She threw the drawing down and headed into her closet to grab a sweatshirt when her phone rang. Finally, her thoughts breathed more irritated then relieved.

"There you are!" Peyton threw open the phone and yelled into the receiver expecting it to Nathan on the other end.

"Peyton, it's Brooke." Her best friend spoke with a tone Peyton had never heard from her in their years of friendship.

"Oh hey, I can't really talk right now. I got to go pick up Nathan and finally break up with.."

Brooke interrupted, "P, he was in car accident on the way home with Lucas. I'm going to come pick you up so we can go to the hospital."

Peyton fell to her bed as her heart plummeted to the claws of her stomach. She stood with the phone in her hand staring at nothing sinking it all in. Her fear and despair were not for Nathan, though she was worried. Her fear was for the blonde haired Scott and what she felt for him would go unsaid if anything happened to him.

--*--*--*--*--*--

In Karen's Café, Haley was wiping down the front counter waiting for her last customers to cash out and for her best friend to arrive. Ten minutes went by, the customers left, along with a cruddy tip and there was no show of Lucas. She tried not to notice how late it was getting but, she couldn't help it. They were supposed to pull up to the school fifteen minutes ago and the hike to café would not have taken more then five minutes.

Haley busied herself cleaning off the tables not paying attention to the gnawing feeling in her stomach that her childhood friend was in trouble.

"Haley, are you still here?" Karen called from the back.

"Yeah!" the girl replied.

Karen came up to the front with a container to replenish all the napkins that had been used all day. She was shocked to find Haley still there to reply to her. Lucas was expected to come by and pick her up twenty minutes ago.

"Aren't Lucas and you coming over to watch a movie tonight?" she inquired knowing the answer but still in question.

"Yep, every Friday for the last four years on the quest to find the dumbest chick flick." Haley spoke of the tradition with pride.

Haley started the tradition the Friday after Lucas had his first seizure. He was stuck in the hospital for the week as the doctors ran countless tests to figure out what had happened. He was supposed to leave with the father-son camping trip with Keith they took every year that weekend but he was cooped up in the hospital under the scrutinizing and intimidating looks of the doctors and medical staff. To say he was disappointed was an understatement.

Haley, after receiving permission from Karen, spent the night in the hospital with Lucas. They really did not sleep much. They played games, he read excerpts from their favorite books, they made up stories, and then when they were much too tired to do anything else they watched a really corny chick flick. They laughed over and over again at the cheesy lines, the unrealistic circumstances, the fake attraction, and the disgusting love making parts.

Lucas loved that night, that though his circumstances were no fun, he had a best friend that's love and fun showed through it all. They promised that no matter what, that they would make a tradition out watching every chick flick they could find even if it wasn't in English. If it wasn't originally written in English, the two of them would translate the entire movie in their own words. No matter what happened earlier in the week, the two had always looked forward to their special tradition as a great way to end the school.

Now, years later, thousands of horribly cheesy films, Haley waited for Lucas to arrive to bring her back to his house to uphold the tradition. She waited. Half an hour had gone by and there was no phone call to warn her he was running later. Something he would constantly do after becoming part of the basketball team, even if he was going be five minutes late, he gave her the courtesy so she wouldn't worry.

"Hmm…where is that boy of mine?" Karen thought out loud. "Why don't you come home with me and we'll eat all these yummy chocolate chip cookies while we wait. And we he does eventually show up, we'll punish him."

Haley nodded with a smile. She loved Karen. Though she was alone in raising Lucas with no help from his stupid father, Karen also took the time to take care of Haley while her mother was off doing something more important then raising a daughter. Karen, Lucas, Haley and Keith all against the world made an incredible team.

"Let me do one thing and we'll be out of here." Karen spoke as she turned around to do something. But before she could get it, the phone rang.

Haley finished wiping the table as Karen answered the phone. She found a spot on the table and furiously worked at it trying not to eavesdrop but found it when she heard Karen's voice grow from bubbly to panicked. She turned around to find the woman she most admired clutching the phone tightly with tears threatening to fill her big blue eyes.

Without a goodbye, Karen dropped the phone. She grabbed her purse and rifled through its contents to find her keys. Haley watched with her eyes wide with fear afraid to ask what had happened. She could take a wild guess and still only be half right.

Karen stopped abruptly at the door and turned to face the terrified girl. With as much composure as she could try to muster, Karen Roe explained "Lucas had a seizure while driving with Nathan. We got to go to the hospital."

Haley's heart literally stopped beating for all of a second. The intense pain and fear halted everything in her body. Lucas had had some bad episodes in his ordeal with the condition that plagued him but never while he was driving. She could only imagine how horrific the crash was under a boy who convulsed behind the wheel. He lost complete control of the car, others safety, and his body.

* * *

_Hey-hey!!! Check it out another update is less then a week!!! I just had to after all those many, wonderful reviews! I was thrilled to find eight reviews for the past chapter...that made my day the other day! :) Thank you soooo much for your faithfulness in reading this and for the kick in the butt my creativity needed desperately. I really love how this story is unfolding and I hope you do as well. Tomorrow I am working on final projects for school so there won't be an update for a little while but I will definitely be checking in to read the reviews you've left (hint-hint). My goal is to finish this bad boy by Christmas. I hope I can do it! Have a great night or day, depends when you read this! :) _


	10. A Tough Promise

Pain hammering from his head brought him out of a deep sleep. His eyes slowly opened to an unfamiliar room. He tried to lift up his head to look around but the pain intensified and forced him to lie it back down. With his eyes he tried to observe the unknown location around him and see if he could put anything together.

The room was dimly lit which he could appreciate being that his head hurt so badly. There was an incessant beeping noise that seemed to echo and bring more pain. He heard voices murmuring not to far away. The room was hardly decorated, just enough to bring some cheer into the mundane surroundings. The walls were a light blue bringing some excitement. The room itself smelled sterile, like the smell his mother made after cleaning the bathroom. He always hated the smell. It overwhelmed his senses and gave him a headache. Being that he already had one, it just merely aggravated it.

"Good morning, Nathan." A bright cheery voice interrupted his observations.

Nathan tilted his head over to the direction of the voice. An over weight and aging woman stood to the left of him fiddling with an IV bag that stood next to his bed. Her white hair was tied in a tight braid that stretched down to the middle her back. Her black rimmed glasses sat at the bridge of her small nose.

"How are you feeling, handsome?" she inquired once she was done playing with the bag of liquids. She looked over at him and studied his appearance.

Seventeen year old boy. His dark, almost black hair had been matted down. His dark blue eyes were wide with exhaustion. His pupils were dilated the sign of the pretty intense concussion the accident left him with. Somehow, probably as the car made the decent down the embankment his head slammed against the dashboard. He had a pretty nasty gash to show for it. A white bandage was wrapped around the circumference of his head several times to keep the gauze in place.

It wasn't a walk in the park trying to put the bandage on. The boy was absolutely combative from the moment they brought him into the ER on stretcher. He came in kicking and screaming every obscenity known to man kind. Every one that approached his gurney went in with the risk of getting hurt in some way. Not only did the pain drive him insane, but his desire to know the status of his brother plagued him. Once in a room where a team of doctors and nurses could treat and assess his condition, he begged to know where his brother was and how he was every few minutes as his short term memory began to shut down.

The doctor overlooking Nathan goal was to calm him down as much as possible before they would tell him anything about his brother. Not that is was necessary bad news but it was not the best of news either. The truth of the matter his brother's body kept having seizures and no one could figure out how to stop them. They injected anti-convulsion medication, muscle relaxers and even sedatives and still the boy would not stop ceasing.

Everyone agreed the younger sibling would not be ready to take in the news of his brother's fragile condition until he himself calmed down and had his own physical pain managed. Now Nathan had been sleeping solidly for the last four hours after spending the entire night fighting his doctors, facing bouts of nausea, and being woken up every hour as nurses would check on him and his memory. Every time they did it they found he was already improving and that he would be okay but just for precaution, they planned to keep in through the night and all of the next day and if need be another night.

"My head hurts." Nathan spoke rubbing his temples with his fingers.

The roaring pain was nothing he had ever felt before. Pain that made it hurt to move his eyes around, let alone move his body. He had to use the bathroom terribly but the thought of sitting up and walking over to the bathroom scared him. But the urge was strong, it was worth a try. How bad could it be?

"I need to go the bathroom." Nathan announced to his nurse. It humored him that he felt the urge to tell her.

"Okay sweetheart, let me help you up." She replied coming closer to him. She reached her arms towards the back of his neck and slowly counted to three out loud. The two of them lifted his body up into a sitting position.

The pain that was roaring lying down, shot up to an excruciating level sitting up. He almost passed out. Black dots splattered all over his vision making him extremely nauseous. He maintained his churning stomach from emptying all over the nurse. The agony must have taken form on his face because the nurse piped up,

"Think you can make it to the bathroom?"

Trying to focus his blurry vision, he titled his head over to the bathroom door. It could not have been more then five feet away but with the throbbing pound coming from the back of his head it seemed like more then hundred feet away. He never could imagine a bathroom trip would feel like miles away. A boy who trained every day for much of his life by running several miles a day could not fathom walking a few steps over to a bathroom would absolutely terrify him.

"Not right now. I can wait." Nathan admitted exhaustedly slowly putting his head back on the pillow.

"Okay, that's fine. You tell me when you're ready. In the mean time let me go get some more medication to ease your pain." She spoke with such sweetness.

Just before she could turn around to leave, Nathan remembered the accident involved his brother. His brother having a seizure while driving. Instantly concern filled inside of Nathan as he thought over the mess.

"Wait…what about my brother, where is he?" he questioned almost afraid to find out. He better not being prepared to be buried in the ground Nathan allowed his thoughts to think.

The nurse turned around with a small grin. The seventeen year old boy was deeply concerned about his brother that it still shocked her to find out they were only half brothers and that they just found out about it. Nathan's pain filled eyes were wide with concern and apprehensive.

"Oh hun," she spoke with delicacy that terrified Nathan to the depths of his heart, "he's right here next you."

The nurse pushed back a burgundy curtain he had not noticed before. On the other side was a bed the same size of Nathan's. The walls were the same on Nathan's side. The difference was Lucas had a window over his bed. Outside the sky was just beginning to explode with colors of the morning sky. Hues of pink, orange, and red lit up the dark blue sky. Nathan could not place the last time he was up early enough to see the sky decorated like so.

The main difference between the two sides was on the opposite side there was an amazing kid laying in the bed unconscious. Lucas was a rare one of the kind kid that really did not deserve any of the crap that he had been dealt by either Dan, Nathan himself, or the odd seizure. Lucas handled stuff that had been unfairly thrown at him since they had known each other with such grace and strength that Nathan often envied.

Now his strong older brother by three months lied on his bed unconscious. He looked much older then he did before the accident. Nathan wanted to get up and get a good look at him but not only did the pain hold him back, but fear. He didn't think he could muster the courage to see his brother like that.

Nathan hadn't noticed the boy's mom and Keith, both boys' uncle, taking up two chairs in the corner of the room near the bed. Both were resting in each other's arms. Karen's head was in Keith's chest. His head was resting on his hand and their eyes were closed.

"How is he?" Nathan dared to ask the condition of his brother.

The nurse took in a deep breath trying to think of a gentle way to inform him of his brother's condition. She went to reply with the best answer she could conjure up but was interrupted by one of Lucas's arms beginning to slowly jerk. Without any hesitation, she marched over to the door of the room and hollered down the hall,

"Patient is ceasing again!"

Nathan forced himself to sit up and throwing his legs over the side of the bed faster then he would like, but regardless got a front seat at another monster ravaging through his big brother's body. Lucas's eyes shot wide open and glared at his younger brother as the rest of his body began to succumb to the convulsion. In an instant his body went from his arm jerking to his body going completely rigid in some parts and the other parts were trembling hysterically.

With the combination of the noise Lucas's body made went it slammed against the bed, the machines around him beeping like crazy, and several medical staff ushering in the room Karen's eyes shot open. She woke up to a sight no one would voluntarily wake up to see, let alone a mother who faced this battle that she thought they moved on from. She watched her only son under the trance of the seizure unable to do anything; a fact that greatly troubled her as she sat there for probably the fiftieth time in his illness and watched him.

This weekend was particularly hard being that not only could she do nothing but watch, the doctors and nurses had no power as well in stopping the epilepsy and its extreme rage to make up time for all the months that passed by where Lucas had not experienced a single episode. The doctors, even Lucas's own who was there every step of condition, were absolutely dumbfounded what they could do for the boy. There was a point his doctor warned where if he did not take his medication and received a nasty blow to the head all at the same time, he would face the monsters at full force with no help or relief until then electricity in his brain calmed down. This day was today.

Karen sat numbly staring at her boy. In the mist of the monster, Lucas let out a painful loud agonizing moan. The yell sent chills down Nathan's spine as he watched in terror with his eyes wide open. The yell also brought Keith out of his light sleep. His eyes slowly opened to find Karen at the edge of her seat watching without blinking. His eyes turned upon the bed to find Lucas in the same state he was in just an hour before.

No matter how times a man can watch his nephew, more like his son, have a seizure it never got easier. There were more times then he cared to admit that after witnessing the boy he loved have a seizure where he would have to leave the room, vomit, and silently cry. The images haunted him often as much as he tried to make them disappear. Keith began to recognize the Man's Curse through it all. Men have this innate desire to fix things, it something they possess since they are born. If something's broken they have the desire to fix it. If it's simply a light bulb that burns out and needs a replacement, they do it. If it's a car that's transmission needs fixing, they jump on it. If it's helping a woman they love through a broken heart after being rejected by her boyfriend who impregnated her, they do everything in their power to repair the broken pieces of her heart while falling in love with her and the unborn child. However the curse comes into play when the man is incapable of fixing the broken item. The man will go absolutely mad trying to put it together and calls himself a failure when he cannot fix it.

Keith felt this way about Lucas's epilepsy. He could not pour enough money to get his boy cured of the horrible condition. He had to depend on doctors to make him better because that was the only thing he could do. The curse left him feeling out of control which hurt him deeply. He wanted to fix the boy so the love of his life could live her life with ease knowing her baby boy was okay whenever he wasn't around her. He hated the feeling with every fiber of his being.

The one thing Keith could do through it all was comfort Karen. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her frozen body into his arms. Sometimes the small woman would resist and go absolutely rigid against his attempts. Sometimes she would let him envelope her in his arms. Then there were times where she would rest in his arms and allow the tears to spring down her cheeks.

This morning Karen allowed Keith to take her in his arms but no matter how much she was crying on the inside, she had no more tears to shed. She sat there held in an embrace unable to cry any longer. She merely stared at her only son praying this one would not be as long as the others. There were happening more frequent. Every one grew longer as well. The last one he had was an hour ago and it was a terrifying ten minute ordeal. The seizure he currently was having had long passed that marker.

Lucas's primary neurologist Dr. Kevin Benmark warned Keith and Karen that with the length of the seizure growing Lucas grew more close to going unconscious and possibly not coming out. This thought and possibility scared them to death. They would stare both at the boy and the clock to see how much time would pass by. Years ago his epilepsy was a horrible ordeal but never got this bad.

Nathan watched the nightmare completely frozen. All his focus and energy was transfixed on his brother who still under the spell was staring at him through it all. Nathan was so consumed at what was right in front of him that he had not realized someone had taken a seat right next to him on the bed. He had not realized it till the person had touched his back to show him some comfort through the horrible thing he was witnessing.

The touch literally jolted through Nathan like electricity. It was then he realized that tears were wildly springing down his cheeks. For once he did not feel self conscious or like less of man about crying. He let the tears and sobs come out freely without stopping them. The friendly touch continued to rub his back. He rested his head on the friendly person's shoulder. She smelled beautiful, in a sweet innocent way. Peyton generally smelled of something dark and mysterious much like her personality but this person scent was of flowers and happiness.

Sometime in him observing the aroma radiating from the person helping him, the spell Lucas was under was broken. His body quit convulsing. His eyes still fixated on Nathan stay locked on him for a few moments that felt like forever, but blinked eventually. He exhaustedly rolled his neck and head over towards his mother.

"Hi ma," he spoke in a whisper as if speaking normally would hurt.

The whole medical team supervising and family finally allowed themselves to breathe. Karen leaned over to Lucas and grabbed his hand and placed it inside of hers. "Hey baby, how are you feeling?"

Lucas struggled to keep his eyes opened as he let out a large yawn, "Tired and sore. Feel like I just got back from basketball practice."

Nathan continued to watch afraid to tear his eyes away. A few tears continued to fall down his cheeks. "Hard to watch, isn't it?" the voice spoke with tiredness and her own sad emotion glazing the question.

Nathan lifted his head and turned it slowly to find sitting in the bed next to him, comforting him through the whole ordeal was Haley James. Tears swam in her large, tired chocolate brown eyes. Her small fingers were folded in her lap. Her hair was pulled into two messy braids making a French braid.

When Nathan did not say anything, the two sat in silence as she looked at her best friend talking to the doctors, half listening to what was being said,

"What's wrong with him?" Nathan asked turning his head from her to Lucas as well.

"Severe Epilepsy." She stated with no emotion in her voice. "It's been going on since we were in eighth grade. We thought it was over, but apparently it's not."

It all made sense now. Nathan recalled through the years Lucas slipping out of class without having to explain himself. Sometimes he was calm and in no particular hurry almost slipping out unnoticed. Other times he flew out of his seat with commotion interrupting everyone's concentration. There were times if she was there, Haley would slip out with him. She sometimes bring the teacher to notice they were exiting the class and other times, pending on the urgency Lucas showed in his exit she exited just as quickly.

Nathan would constantly make snide remarks at the situation either to those around him or out loud for the whole class to hear. He would say something to the effect of "Make out break" or "I wonder what they're doing." He would suggest things merely with his sensual tone. The class would snicker unknowing the situation their classmate was in and the teacher would scold them over and over again.

Nathan reflected on those times and inwardly cringed. Was he really that much of jerk? The thought saddened him when he had to say yes. He had no idea what would possess him to be so mean to anyone, let alone someone he shared half DNA with. He made a point to make Lucas's life a living hell, a tradition their father passed onto him. The boy not only faced the rejection of their father at conception but he faced a horrible condition and had a half brother that was relentless at harassing him at every chance he got.

Nathan hated himself more and more as the seconds passed by. He vowed to be better about treating his older half brother with much more respect and kindness. Calling him his half brother would need to end as well, they were brothers. They shared the same father. A father who expended more energy trying to drive a rift between the two boys then most fathers would spend trying to bring their boys together to come to a common accord. Nathan no longer had any desire to let his father win in his filthy schemes. Sure there would be hell to pay, but come what may Nathan Royal Scott planned on sticking with his brother to the end of time no matter what Dan would throw at him.

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_I really loved that chapter! Well...yeah, yeah I did like it a lot! I just can tell my writing has improved and it feels so great! :) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE AWESOME REVIEWS!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY I HAD WITH THAT LAST CHAPTER! I was expecting maybe five, but you guys blew me out of the water. Thank you! thank you! thank you!_

_Now that school is done for the semester, I should be able to whip out some new chapters fairly quickly. :) _


	11. Promise Fufilled

Lucas knew seizures. His body surrendered to the power of epilepsy for years and now when things seemed good, it came back. It seemed like the disease returned with a horrible vendetta. The three he had experienced in the last two weeks were pretty much normal in his battle. The one he had while driving was only bad because he was in fact driving. Under medication and strict orders he would have never been allowed to drive if the doctors knew of the return of his struggle.

Of course, Lucas was a stubborn teenage boy. He figured if he took the medication regularly, the seizures would disappear and he wouldn't have to hinder anyone with the frustrations of his delicate condition. As a seventeen year old boy he figured he had it all under control, but he did not expect his seizures to become a recurring nightmare that would leave his entire family and himself in fear of what they would do next.

Lucas could never recall what would happen in the process but afterwards the feeling was absolutely horrible. His head had felt as if someone had slammed it against a brick wall four times. His body screamed with agony but felt utterly weak and un able to do anything. Pending how long the episode went on for, Lucas's stomach felt twisted and sick. Sometimes it would make him throw up several times. The after math of the seizure generally was the worst part because while others felt powerless watching, he was powerless afterwards.

Three days after the seizure that caused the accident to happen, he experienced fifteen seizures. His body was absolutely exhausted. He could not imagine doing anything more then sleeping and lying in bed for the rest of his life being he no strength to anything else. Right at this moment, just before dinner Lucas, three doctors, mother, and Uncle Keith all were discussing the present problem. Lucas's drained body sat upwards prompted by a pillow. He barely could keep his eyes opened, let alone focus on the conversation in front of him. His mother, who looked just as tired, sat in a chair right next to his bed maintaining complete eye contact with the doctors. Uncle Keith held onto her hands tightly so through all the heavy weight of what the doctors had said she would know she was not in it alone. His eyes were turned downcast on the floor as they professionals ranted about his nephew's condition.

The doctors were concerned with many different things. They, along with Karen and Keith, were not pleased in the least to find out that Lucas had been hiding the obvious. Karen, so tired she could barely control her emotions, almost smacked her son in absolute rage but also fear. What if a seizure would have happened in a place like the Rivercourt where no one would have known and he injured himself somehow through the thrashing? Her mind could run through the horrible situations but she had to focus on the task at hand.

One doctor suggested that Lucas hiding the returning of his condition made things only worse. They could prevented the accident had he of told someone. He dared not admit that someone did know fearing his all too protective mother would tear apart the girl of his dreams. He wanted his mother to get to know Peyton before her mother bear instincts came roaring out at the poor blonde who always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Another doctor was concerned with the fact that seizures length could have potentially damaged something important, something like his ability to walk, run, or to play basketball. The rest of the panel nodded in agreement. The one who presented the possibility wanted Lucas to try to stand up and walk around the room to prove the chance as false. Lucas, who had felt a shot of adrenaline wake him up like a boost a caffeine after hearing the thought of him not being able to play basketball, looked over at his loved ones.

His mother returned his gaze with her screaming with apprehension. What if her baby boy could not walk anymore? He was always active. Ever since he was conceived he was constantly moving around with in the womb and would kick her several times a day trying to get comfortable. The boy seemed to bouncing off the walls, not in a hyper way but just very active.

At seventeen there was a possibility of him not being able to walk again. Intense fear filled the room that could have been cut it with plastic knife. With his heart pounding faster then an entire drum line in a marching band, Lucas pulled the covers off. Everyone stared intently. After getting the blankets off himself, Lucas sat up in the bed. Sure his body was screaming with pain but he had to know, had to know if he still had the ability to walk. His long toes stretched as they prepared to support his body. He gulped and lifted his entire body to his feet. He easily could ignore the pain shooting up his body as he stood up.

The weight of his body though was all too heavy for his jelly like legs. He came crashing down to the floor as his knees buckled. His knees that caused him to fall in the first place caught him allowing him to fall all the way. Lucas felt the tears chasing down his cheeks as he stayed in the same position. He had to believe it was lowest point in his life staring down at the linoleum floor knowing his life was over.

The silence in the room was absolutely deafening. Everyone sat watching unable to move or say anything until someone came from behind him and pulled him up with their strong arms. The doctors began to protest on behalf on the family's privacy but the person ignored their orders.

"That was just a practice run, huh big brother?" Nathan spoke into Lucas's ears. "Try again like you mean it."

Shocked because his brother was lifting him up both physically and mentally, Lucas nodded getting his feet planted again. Once he was ready Nathan turned him around to face him. The boy held onto his big brother's shoulders with his hands and locked his big midnight blue eyes into his brother's two deep oceans of desperation.

"Come on man, you can do it." Nathan encouraged once again. "Ready for me to let go?"

Taking a deep shaky breath, Lucas nodded. Nathan removed his grip and took a step backwards to give him some room. Lucas's body weaved as it stood on its own and Nathan placed his hands out ready to catch him if the worse should have happened again. Lucas closed his eyes and took another deep breath focusing on to performing the task at hand. With complete faith, he took a small insecure step. When the foot connected with the floor, his mother slightly squealed. Lucas let out a small grin when he opened his eyes to see he was a step closer to his brother.

"Good job Luke," Nathan cheered. "continue it with the other foot."

Biting on his bottom lip, Lucas still made intense eye contact with Nathan who was smiling. Shaking, his other leg took another step. Nathan's smile only broadened. He walked a few feet behind him to the door.

"Come on big brother, think you can get me over here?"

Lucas grinned and felt determined to make his way over the boy. He took small steps that were cautious and calculated. Every step made brought a bigger smile across the blonde's face. His heart was thumping afraid he would fall again but his brother's encouraging face only made him feel the fear melt away.

For what seemed like eternity, Lucas made his way to right in front of Nathan. The boys both smiled brightly. Nathan opened his arms out wide. Lucas's body fell into his brother's embrace as they two hugged. Karen let out a sob and fell into Keith's arms as well. Keith kissed her forehead and held her tightly.

The boys held onto each other both allowing sobs to come out. There was nothing to say, no apologies, no explanations, no making up for lost time as it all was said in this embrace.

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_Hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful! My goal is to have the last chapter up before I embark on a winter retreat with my friends for New Years. That gives me to have this done before early Thursday morning. I can do it and I will. Thanks again for the great reviews, means a lot to me. :)_


	12. Permission to Love

_Haha...hey guys, if there are any of you left. I am so sorry. I actually finished this a long time ago for a class but totally forgot to post it here. Thank you for all your support. I love you alll so much! :)_

Chapter Eleven- Permission to Love

Later that night…

She paced in the waiting room with her head down and her eyes transfixed on the ground. The small enclosed area down the hall from his room was amazingly enough a great place for her to concentrate. Maybe that's why in all the movies people pace in the waiting room while waiting for news of their loved ones. But she wasn't waiting for news and he wasn't her loved one.

Or was he?

She growled at her betraying thoughts. She shook her head full of blonde curls furiously hoping the thoughts would fall on and hit the ground with enough impressive force that they would break. When they broke, she would scoop them up to throw them away and never to see them again. Of course she had done that ten times in the last fifteen minutes and it really wasn't good enough. She probably looked like a mumbling idiot. A little boy, sitting next to his mother, watched and counted how many times she paced back and forth. He wanted to know why the pretty lady looked so confused.

Peyton did not notice the scrutinizing look the little boy was giving her. She barely noticed the world around her when she heard about the accident three days ago. Her mind was transfixed on one thing and one thing only- alleging her feelings for the blonde boy she fell for. She had no idea how to approach the whole subject-

_Hey_ _I know you just had a horrible seizure, survived a terrible car accident but I love you_. No, that would sound stupid, just plain stupid. She knew full well the boy was already going through enough and putting this on his plate would surely be unfair. If there was anything however the car accident taught her that life was short and Lucas's assumptions about her and her feelings were extremely true.

Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer had to take a risk. She had to. Her hammering heart would beat irregularly until she got the words out. There was something stopping her though, not just the fear of rejection but Nathan, her ex boyfriend and his half brother. Nathan would be so angry that she left him for his despised older brother. She really did not want to have to deal with the drama.

Physically something stopped her as well, she figured she just ran into a wall but the wall spoke in calm deep voice, "Hey, what are you doing here?"

Peyton looked up and saw the wall that was her ex boyfriend. He carried a calm and innocent smile, not one she was used to seeing "I was going to go…um, visit Lucas…but, I'm not sure if I'm even allowed."

"Yeah, you can go see him." Nathan replied.

Peyton turned around and reached for her bag that sat slanted against one of the chairs. She wrapped it around her shoulder and turned back towards Nathan. She never seen the expression on his face before and it almost scared her. He looked at her with kindness and yet compassion.

"So when are you planning on telling him how much you love him?"

Peyton had been caught off guard. How did her ex boyfriend know of her intention to admit the feelings she had fought off for the last few weeks to his half brother? She looked at him studying the boy. His head was still wrapped in a bandage and the cuts and bruises around his face were healing quite nicely. Beyond the obvious, was a boy with two deep blue eyes that held a new light in them.

She never could have pictured this moment to happen like this. Peyton imagined telling her jerk of a boyfriend of how she felt for his brother and it ending in a huge cross fire. She imagined him yelling at her telling her she was an easy piece of meat. She really did not look forward to the confrontation but, some how it would have to be done. Now, she stood in front of Nathan half surprised, half expecting his mood to change and to lash out at her. But as the time went by, Nathan remained in his peaceful disposition.

"Life's too short Peyton to keep those things inside. It's too short for any conflict really. I don't know why I have spent my whole life hating the guy when I barely knew him. So go Peyt, tell him how you feel. Worse case scenario, he doesn't like you but judging the way he looks at you, I'm sure he feels what you are feeling too."

Peyton let a small smile come across her face as she looked up at him. She could not explain the sudden power that she felt. She felt confident about what Lucas was feeling towards her. Her biggest obstacle had just given her permission to do what she had planned to carry out. Oh the joy of such relief.

Surprisingly, Peyton leaned in and hugged the younger Scott. At first, it was awkward but then it was a comfort. When they pulled off each other, Peyton held onto his large arms but looked him straight in the eye. "Thanks, Nathan."

"No problem. Go, before his mom gets back from talking to his doctors and kills him for keeping this secret." Nathan whispered.

By now, Lucas's well kept secret of his battle with epilepsy was out to everyone in the school and town. One of the major consequences of living in a small town was everyone knowing your business whether it was small or large things. Lucas's epilepsy was a miracle that it remained a secret for so long. Now after the accident, the entire basketball team knew which meant the whole school would be finding out come that Monday. As the whispers and rumors flew by student to student, the entire town would find out too. It would become a fire grown uncontrollable.

Peyton made a decision thinking through all that. She knew she was in love with the boy and that was the easy part. She had to think through entering a relationship with him what would be the logistics. He was going to need a rock in his life that would not let his illness get in the way of their relationship. She imagined Haley being that rock he needed, but from observing her, Haley seemed like she treated Lucas as if he would break at anytime. Yes, he was a fragile person but he was also a seventeen year old boy that needed to be treated as such. Peyton wanted to be that person for him that would allow him to forget his scary illness when they were together.

The rumors that would circle around Lucas for the next few weeks would be unbearable but Peyton was determined to stand by him through it all. She wanted him to have someone who would not bother him with all the questions, comments, and pity. He really did not seem like the type to put with up with pity, probably why he kept it for a secret for so long. Peyton really wanted to stand by his side through it all. It sounded much easier then done but she was willing to give it a try, if Lucas truly reciprocated her love.

Peyton smiled and drop her arms off of Nathan. Nathan returned the smile and spoke words she heard over and over again but with much more sincerity.

"I'm sorry all the stuff I have put you through, Peyton. I've been a jerk. I really hope things work out with Lucas and you because you deserve it. You both do."

"Thank you," she answered.

Now she was walking down the hall fiddling with her fingers as a mass of butterflies grew in her stomach. Sweat rested on her neck as her nerves intensified. She went through her mental list of all the major points she wanted to talk about. Just as she arrived at his door, she felt pretty confident she could go through with her plan.

Peyton knocked on the door frame of his room softly. Lucas was lying in his hospital bed with his eyes looking out the window of his room. His hair which usually had every strand spiked was now flat. He looked like he had aged since the last time she had seen him. He just looked plain exhausted. His skin bore soft paleness. She could see his eyes were grey. The knocking grabbed Lucas's attention. He looked over at his visitor and smiled upon seeing her.

"Peyton, hi." Lucas spoke with excitement dripping his words, bringing himself to sit up more.

That's when everything Peyton had rehearsed evaporated into thin air. She mentally tried to jump up and down in the sky trying to retrieve the fleeting thoughts but they were long gone. They left her alone to her own devices. It took everything in her not to run away in absolute horror. She actually turned around to run, but the boy stopped her.

"Where are you going?"

Peyton took a deep breath and turned around to face the blonde haired boy. "Is this a bad time, because I can come back."

"Not at all, Haley and I were watching a movie but she-"

"Good because I have something to tell you." Peyton blurted out faster then she would have liked.

Lucas watched her with confusion written all over his face as she walked into his room. His eyes followed her as she sat down, struggled to speak, and stood up to pace around the room. She went to speak many times, but would stop before the first word of the sentence could come out.

Lucas grinned again that expression that held her in his captivity, "Peyton, what's going on?"

Was he really that oblivious to her screaming thoughts? Her head was blaring so loud she was surprised not only did he not hear them but the whole hospital. She finally stopped pacing and it looked at the boy she never imagined she would ever say any of the next sentences to.

"Remember when you kept telling me that you knew I loved you?"

Lucas smiled again and rubbed his cheek, "Yes, I have a hurting cheek to remind me."

"Well you were, kind of, sort of right. I really do like you." Out came the words she had feared for so long.

Lucas nodded with a light grin on his face. Peyton waited for himself to say something, anything but all he did was nod slowly.

"Well are you going to say anything? You had plenty to say before, now all you are just going to sit there and stare at me?" she questioned with annoyance. She knew this all would be a joke.

"What do you want me to say? I already knew what you have been feeling for awhile, I've just been waiting for you to know."

Wow. Okay, she felt like the dumbest person in the world when he put it that way. However, it did kind of relieve her. She did not have to explain feelings he had no idea existed. Now all she needed to know if it was a common thing they shared or was it a hopeless cause.

Just on cue to her thoughts, Lucas alleged "I like you too,"

Those four words were the sweetest words Peyton had ever heard in her entire life. It brought her this intense relief that she was truly safe with feeling the way she felt. Everything inside of her exploded with joy. Gravity had no power on her as she floated through the sky with happiness and giddiness holding over her like a magnet.

"I've known it quite a while now, I didn't need your help figuring it out." Lucas joked.

Peyton rolled her eyes, as a wide smile came across both of their faces. Just as she went in to crawl on his bed and give him a hug,

"Alright Lucas Eugene, you better not have pressed play without me or I will definitely be eating this contraband of animal crackers myself." Haley interrupted behind Peyton.

Lucas and Peyton looked over at her as she waltzed in the room with a bag of cookies in her hand. She plopped down on the bed right along side Lucas. She grabbed a remote sitting on the nightstand and pressed play. She dug her fingers in the animal cracker bag to grab a large handful. She shoved it in her face and watched the chick flick movie in front of her. She without looking at him, leaned the bag towards Lucas so he could grab some.

Lucas looked over at Peyton smiling widely at his best friend's oblivion to the world around her. Haley still watching the movie with her arm stretched out snorted at a corny line.

"I'm scared of not being with you!" she quoted the line from A Walk to Remember out loud, "Yeah hun, you got worse things to be scared of. Like the cancer you have been ignoring. Forget the guy, you obviously don't have time for him. Right, Luke?"

When Lucas did not answer, Haley took her eyes off the movie and looked at him. He was not watching the movie but looking at something, rather someone else. Haley brought her eyes over to what he was looking at. Peyton Sawyer. The only way she would be here in the hospital room would be Lucas's great fantasies and Haley was convinced this was not one of them because she was in it…gross.

"Why hello Peyton, when did you get here?"

"Right after you left for our contraband." Lucas answered still watching Peyton.

Haley nodded shoving another pile of the animal crackers in her mouth watching the two looking at each other. She observed Lucas's face had filled back up with color and his eyes returned to their natural ocean blue state. Peyton's smile across her face was wide. In all her years of knowing Peyton Sawyer, Haley had never seen her smile that large and real looking.

She took the bag into her hands, paused the television, and slipped out of the room unnoticed. Lucas had enough publicity in other issues, so she figured granting him the this one. Of course she would be hounding him later for all the info, but for now it would be between her and him.

The end.


End file.
